Facebook launches the new version of the Atlas advertising platform

Facebook yesterday officially unveiled the new version of Atlas, the advertising platform that, according to the information provided, was completely renovated to meet the challenges of today’s marketing. The goal is to reach people on various devices and bridge the gap between online impression and offline purchases.

The point is that Facebook wants to offer its advertisers the ability to manage their advertising campaigns targeting them, connecting to the users’ interests. In the past, targeted advertising typically relied on cookies for tracking but this method is less and less complete and accurate. The problem is especially in mobile devices, used by a bigger and bigger share of users to surf Facebook and other sites.

The new Atlas should offer advertising connected to the tracking of user activity, especially on Facebook. Quite simply, if you Like a page, in the past you already might’ve happened to see advertising related to products of that type. In the future, this concept will be even more extensive, not only on Facebook.

Instagram, bought by Facebook in April 2012, is now included among the sites that will use the new Atlas platform. Other partners have already signed agreements and surely more will come. Facebook’s goal is to challenge Google, the leader in online advertising.

In all of this the issue of privacy can’t be ignored. Facebook stated that users will always remain anonymous in the statistics provided to advertisers. Can we trust it? The lack of transparency often shown in the past by the social network, leading to controversy, urges caution. Meanwhile, let’s be aware of the fact that what we do on the Internet in general is anything but private.